SWORN

In an ever-evolving video game landscape, rarely does any title stick very close to the legendary stories and reinvent the ways of play refreshingly and rather excitingly. Enter Sworn, brought to gamers by Windwalk Games. This action rogue-like achieves the breathing of life into the world of Camelot, both familiar and excitingly new.

A Corrupted Camelot Awaits

Sworn drops players into a fallen Camelot—one in which the once-noble King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have gone corrupt. You play as a Soulforged knight tasked to guide your fellow knights strayed from the path into the light, alone reclaiming the realm from darkness, or with up to three friends in cooperative play. The comic-inspired art style is very à la carte Mike Mignola, putting a very plated sheen into this darkly fantastical setting of the game: grittily enchanting.

From the very moment one steps into this twisted version of Avalon, there is a host of familiar characters from Arthurian lore. Merlin and Nimue guide players through the intricacies of this dangerous new world. The story unfolds organically as one explores, discovering the cause of the increasing darkness and rallying to combat corrupted renditions of legendary figures.

Forger of Your Own Legend

What separates Sworn from a host of other Arthurian-flavored games is the ingenuity that went into its blessing system. At its core, this game is about sworn fealty that players can pledge to a variety of Fae Lords, all brimming with different powers and abilities. Having hundreds of Blessings at their fingertips makes character builds almost endless. Will you channel Titania's cleansing fires or Oberon's furious winds?

This is reminiscent of the god-gifted boons in Hades, another critically acclaimed rogue-like. Sworn, however, takes it a little further by interlacing these elements with weapon choices and character abilities for thousands of possible combinations. At this depth of customization, a playthrough will always be fresh and exciting, challenging one to experiment or think strategically.

The Beacon of Avalore will serve as your hub between runs, and you'll be in a position to upgrade your character over time. This system makes for a nice addition to the rogue-like formula through the satisfying sense of developing a squire into a powerful knight who seriously pitches his lance at Arthur himself.

Review: 8.5/10

After putting in so many hours into Camelot's reclamation, it's needless to say Sworn is a labor of love, so deft at melding often familiar Arthurian lore with some truly ingenious takes on gameplay. This co-op feature piles on even more fun as friends work out strategies and combine unique builds in very surprising ways.

The difficulty curve is well balanced: challenging for older players but accessible for the new ones. This strangely caters to the ones who want a very intense challenge from the start with the option of making Arthur available right at the beginning.

Pros:

• Innovative Blessing System and Deep Customization
• Engaging Co-op Action for up to 4 players
• Stunning Comic-Inspired Visuals
• Well-Crafted Narrative that Respects the Arthurian Lore
• Very high replayability due to different possible character builds

Cons:

• For some players, the rogue-like structure might get very repetitive after some time
• Solo play is comparatively hard compared to co-op
• Some bless combinations are at times way too OP